Page 51 of Dark Love

Vex, the irritating man, is waiting just a few steps outside of the dressing room. He has the nerve to look calm and relaxed like he could stand there all day.

“I’m ready to go.”

Without a word, he takes my hand in his.

“Have a nice day.” I smile at the cashier as we walk out. Vex is just way too intense to smile at a stranger. He certainly isn’t smiling at me. I should be grumpy with him, but with his hand wrapped around mine…

The second the door closes behind us, he whispers, “You will never step foot in that shop again.”

Excuse me. “You can’t tell me where to shop.”

“You don’t belong in a place like this.”

It certainly wouldn’t be my first choice to shop here. “You can’t tell me what to do.”

“I can when it comes to this. You deserve beautiful clothing. A lady like you doesn’t shop in a…” His lips twist. “… place like this.”

How can he be so irritating while at the same time so sweet? Vex can’t tell me what to do, even if I don’t have any plans to ever come here again. “I’ll shop where I like.” This was definitely a better choice than going without a bra.

“Trouble. You’re nothing but trouble.” He squeezes my hand and starts towards the waiting cars.

That word would irk me even more if being this close to Vex didn’t turn my whole world upside down.

Why Here?

Dahlia

The car comes to a stop, and I gawk at the stores outside the window. This is not where I thought we would go when I agreed to go shopping with Vex. “This isn’t the mall.”

“No, it’s not.” He makes no move to exit the car.

“But how are we going to eat pretzels and wander around holding hands?” There’s no way I just said that. Even a child would know better than to just blurt something like that out.

“You do know we aren’t teenagers.”

It’s been a while since I’ve been a teenager, and I’m more than happy not to remember that stage of my life. Still — “So? Pretzels and company are the two best parts of shopping.”

“Does your whole life revolve around food? You have ‘thank you’ cookies and ‘shopping’ pretzels. Are there any other food rules I should know about?”

“They aren’t rules per se.”

“There are more.”

I shrug. He doesn’t need to know about engagement brownie cheesecake or any of the other dozen foods that mean something.

“Good to know. I look forward to learning your food rules.”

That’s going to be hard, since this is the last time we’ll ever see each other.

He steps out of the car and holds a hand out to help me out of the car. A quick scoot brings my legs over to the door, leaving part of the coat behind me.

No. No. No. I tug at the coat, trying to cover my legs. How do models walk around in all those micro minis without showing anything and I can’t even make it with a dress that’s longer than mid-thigh?

Vex moves to stand between me and the sidewalk, obstructing the view of everyone around, facing the wall sidewalk like the gentleman he isn’t supposed to be.

This would be the ideal time for me to develop some sort of grace and coordination. I tug and yank and twist until some semblance of coverage happens.

Why can’t this be a nightmare?

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